DxO PureRaw v.2

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GrandNagus50

GrandNagus50

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It has been released, and if you are already a subscriber it costs $79 instead of $129. I would have thought I would get a year of free upgrades before having to pay again, and in this case that would have been free till May. I guess I am a little skeptical that this is really a whole new "version two" rather than simply a bump upwards of the old software.

That said, it runs a bit faster on my faster laptop (Dell XPS17) but still runs abysmally on my four-year-old Dell XPS13, my travel laptop. And even though some of the articles online discussing the new version mention that it is supposed to be compatible with Z9 Raw files, it is not, at least not yet. This annoys me, but I guess "all good things are worth waiting for."
 
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I'm going to see if they let me download the free trial of v.2 despite having v.1 installed. I bought PR with a big discount (50%) back in November. I would have hoped for a better deal than $79 considering I paid less than that for the original only 4 months ago.
 
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GrandNagus50 said:
It has been released, and if you are already a subscriber it costs $79 instead of $129. I would have thought I would get a year of free upgrades before having to pay again, and in this case that would have been free till May. I guess I am a little skeptical that this is really a whole new "version two" rather than simply a bump upwards of the old software.

That said, it runs a bit faster on my faster laptop (Dell XPS17) but still runs abysmally on my four-year-old Dell XPS13, my travel laptop. And even though some of the articles online discussing the new version mention that it is supposed to be compatible with Z9 Raw files, it is not, at least not yet. This annoys me, but I guess "all good things are worth waiting for."
Click to expand...
The DXO web site indicates support for Z9 RAW files but not currently for RAW Compression HE files. I use DXO PL and tried the original Pure Raw but found that the 'workflow' was too clumsy since I primarily use Photoshop. I will download the trial and see if it works within Photoshop for RAW files. I stopped using HE files because FastRawReview also does not currently fully support HE files. I am guessing both DXO and FastRawReview will both support HE files in the future.
 
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So I downloaded the 30 day PR 2.0 trial. The claims were 4x faster on M1 silicone.

In my testing with Compressed 50MP A1 RAW I got 15s in 2.0 and 26s in 1.5. So certainly nowhere near 4x...not even 2x. What I like about 2.0 is that it is direct out of LR without dragging between the two programs and (when it works) it imports automatically when finished the processing. However about 50% of the time it didn't import automatically, I had to click Synchronize folder and then maybe 10-15s later LR threw up an error for what I assume was the intended auto import.

The results were identical between 1.5 and 2.0 as far as the look of the file afterwards but I don't think they made any claims about new algorithms.

Nikon Z9 is not supported (at least my HE* files) but Canon R3 is now.
 
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I did a quick test on an image using Topaz Denoise and Pure RAW 2 with a Z9 file. For this one image taken in low light with the Z9, 500 f4 G and 20 TCIII (1000mm) the Topaz Denoise produced artifacts in the noisy area. Pure RAW 2 did not, For this one image I found that Pure RAW 2 did a better job than Topaz Denoise. In the past I had used DXO PL just to get Deep Prime noise reduction and optical corrections. I found DXO PL to much work to use with Photoshop, which is what I use, so I stopped using DXO PL. I tried the original Pure Raw and found that also too cumbersome. However DXO Deep Prime, in my judgement, was the best noise reduction software I have used.
Pure RAW 2, while not a Photoshop plugin does make using Photoshop easier.
I will probably buy Pure RAW 2 and use that instead of Topaz Denoise going forward.
Pure RTAW 2 worked fine with uncompressed Z9 RAW files.
 
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I've typically found DXO PR to be better than Topaz Denoise once I'm at higher ISO (say 3200 or up, maybe even 2000 and up if background is dark and therefore underexposed). Like Bob, in my testing Topaz Denoise seems to produce color blob artifacts in the background. However, if I turned off lens sharpening then DXO PR made similar color blobs in the background.

However my issue with DXO PR is that on lower ISO files it seems to over-sharpen things even if I turn off the lens sharpening toggle. Topaz Denoise is more gentle on Auto-Standard setting. With the more efficient workflow from V2.0 I would even switch to PureRaw all the time if it didn't over sharpen so much on the lower ISO files.
 
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arbitrage said:
I've typically found DXO PR to be better than Topaz Denoise once I'm at higher ISO (say 3200 or up, maybe even 2000 and up if background is dark and therefore underexposed). Like Bob, in my testing Topaz Denoise seems to produce color blob artifacts in the background. However, if I turned off lens sharpening then DXO PR made similar color blobs in the background.

However my issue with DXO PR is that on lower ISO files it seems to over-sharpen things even if I turn off the lens sharpening toggle. Topaz Denoise is more gentle on Auto-Standard setting. With the more efficient workflow from V2.0 I would even switch to PureRaw all the time if it didn't over sharpen so much on the lower ISO files.
Click to expand...
I am trying to see how to turn off the lens sharpening toggle in PureRAW2 - I do not see how to do it.
It does appear that PureRAW2 adds sharpening and looking at the DXO web site the typical response from DXO is the PureRAW is a one click solution and you should use DXO PL if you want to create your own adjustments. I've used DXO PL for a few years and currently have PL4. The last upgrade to PL5 offered very little, almost nothing of use for image processing.
I did not upgrade to PL5 from 4 - I found the upgrade minimal and feel it was just a way to charge customers $99 for little in return.
DXO says they will support the Z9 in their current version without and upgrade charge but I doubt they will offer Z9 support for PL 4
I really like Deep PRIME. I also like what DXO has done to make the NIK software current. However I am not pleased with the minimal annual upgrade process.
I did send two requests to DXO to see if you can turn off sharpening in PureRAW 2. I have no idea why any sharpening is included since the strength of DXO is Deep PRIME and the optics corrections. Having DXO PureRAW2 generate a sharpened DNG file for processing in Photoshop seems just wrong to me.
My second question is to see if DXO will add Z9 support to PL4 (current version is PL5)?
 
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DXO said that they will "pass along comments about sharpening in DXO PureRAW2 - which probably means WYSIWYG.
DXO also replied that the Z9 is on their PL "roadmap" and will be added to the current version PL5 but will not be added to PL4. Looks like another way to squeeze users for a minimal upgrade.
 
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RockvilleBob said:
I am trying to see how to turn off the lens sharpening toggle in PureRAW2 - I do not see how to do it.
It does appear that PureRAW2 adds sharpening and looking at the DXO web site the typical response from DXO is the PureRAW is a one click solution and you should use DXO PL if you want to create your own adjustments. I've used DXO PL for a few years and currently have PL4. The last upgrade to PL5 offered very little, almost nothing of use for image processing.
I did not upgrade to PL5 from 4 - I found the upgrade minimal and feel it was just a way to charge customers $99 for little in return.
DXO says they will support the Z9 in their current version without and upgrade charge but I doubt they will offer Z9 support for PL 4
I really like Deep PRIME. I also like what DXO has done to make the NIK software current. However I am not pleased with the minimal annual upgrade process.
I did send two requests to DXO to see if you can turn off sharpening in PureRAW 2. I have no idea why any sharpening is included since the strength of DXO is Deep PRIME and the optics corrections. Having DXO PureRAW2 generate a sharpened DNG file for processing in Photoshop seems just wrong to me.
My second question is to see if DXO will add Z9 support to PL4 (current version is PL5)?
Click to expand...

It is here to turn off sharpening..

Screen Shot 2022-03-18 at 6.16.14 AM.jpg
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arbitrage said:
Like Bob, in my testing Topaz Denoise seems to produce color blob artifacts in the background.
Click to expand...

my experience is when you are dealing with high iso images in denoise, you are better off masking your primary subject, applying whatever NR you want for the background, then doing another pass with super light (like single digit) NR applied across the frame for to address the primary subject.

i also have found, that if there is a lot of color noise, you're better off applying a little bit of color NR in LR before you send it to denoise.
 
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